LIMA (AFP) -- Thousands of protesters demanding a greater share of economic benefits from mining operations overwhelmed riot police in southern Peru on Monday and took hostage 65 police and a general, mediators said.

Furious residents of Moquegua, a town 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) south of Lima, have conducted a weeklong road blockade to demand more from an economic boom that has enriched mining companies.
In a tense standoff about 20,000 people have converged on a cathedral where the hostages were being held.
The violence left about 60 people injured, including 13 -- mostly female police officers -- who were released by the demonstrators, Veronica Paredes, of the Peruvian ombudsman's office which is seeking to negotiate an end to the violence, told AFP.
She said 65 police were captured in the clashes and were being held in a cathedral along with a commanding officer, General Alberto Jordan.
""Right now the hostages are being held in the cathedral in Moquegua and they can not leave,"" Paredes said, adding that an angry mob had gathered outside the cathedral.
General Jordan told a radio station that conditions around the cathedral remained highly volatile and that government forces needed to withdraw.
""The situation in Moquegua is no longer under police control,"" Jordan told RPP radio.
""I have wounded here and I am in trouble, so I urge police to please draw back. There are 20,000 people, and it is because of them that the police must withdraw.""
In the capital Lima, Prime Minister Jorge del Castillo was aiming to reach a deal with leaders of the protesters, who in their weeklong protests have blocked the main highway from the south of the Andean nation to Chile.
The inhabitants of Moquegua, a town of 50,000, insist that the government redistribute taxes paid by Southern Peru Copper Corporation, the country's largest copper producer.
Social unrest is common in Peru's mining regions, where the population accuses large mining companies of generating windfall profits and polluting the environment while offering little benefit to local residents.